384
NOTES AND QUERIES. pr- s. n. NOV. 12, m
think about it ? It would be interesting to ascer-
tain the earliest Presbyterian use of the word. In
my boyhood I always heard the c in this word pro-
nounced with the sound of z, and grew up in the
belief that it was written ' presenter.' "
ME. PICKFOED wrote (p. 475) :
" Some thirty years ago, when on a visit to For- farshire, at a shooting-lodge in the heart of the Grampians, where we used to attend the little Highland kirk, I can remember the precentor, a man in very humble life, who had a wooden leg, taking his place in his little desk underneath the pulpit and giving out the psalm, or one of the Scot- tish paraphrases, first holding up a large card on which was printed in large type the tune to be sung, and then blowing a pitch-pipe. We had neither organ, harmonium, violoncello, nor any accompany- ing musical instrument."
FATHEE ANGUS, at p. 258, had written :
"Just as the 'cantors' at (say) vespers intone the opening words of antiphons, hymns, &c., so the ' precentor ' now, in , Presbyterian churches, ' leads off' the opening words of the metrical psalm, or of the hymn about to be sung."
All this prepares us for the concluding paragraph of the essay in Household Words :
"Certainly, nowadays, the preliminary reading of the words formerly an essential part of the ' letting-gae,' and dating from days wnen psalm- books were few and far between, and persons had to trust to memory for both words and tune has pretty well fallen into desuetude. Completely vanished, too, is the large card on which was printed in huge type the tune to be sung, together with the preliminary blowing of a pitch-pipe, in such churches where neither organ, harmonium, 'cello, serpent, nor any accompanying musical instrument existed. By the way, now shocked these old-fashioned precentors always the sternest of stern Presbyterians would have been had you told them that their title had a distinctly liturgical, not to say Popish, ring about it ! For there can be little doubt as to the practice of announcing the first words of psalm, nymn, or canticle being a palpable survival of Roman Catholic usage. Just as the ' cantors' in any Roman Catholic or ritualistic Church of England house of worship intone the opening words of antiphons and canticles, sub- sequently taken up and chanted by the choir [FATHER ANGUS had said, in addition to what has already been quoted from him, " and the choir then took up and chanted the canticle"], so the 'pre- centor now, in Presbyterian churches, ' leads off' the opening words of the metrical psalm, or of the hymn about to be sung. It would be interesting to ascertain the earliest Presbyterian use of this word, in which, it may be added, it was formerly the custom to pronounce the letter c with the sound of z, as if spelt prezentor."
The essayist's style, it will be observed, tends to be somewhat loose when he ventures fora moment to depend upon himself. On the whole, however, it must be admitted that he displays wonderful care and caution in dealing with his material, and has a very proper regard for the text which he utilizes with such freedom and deliberation. He
deserves credit, moreover, for the neatness
and the considerable finish of his patchwork.
In scheme and execution he is original and
bold, and it is surprising that such a daring
eclectic should be so modest as to publish an
anonymous production. But his editor, no
doubt, will know his contributor, and as an
editorial note, on the page that follows this
remarkable essay, intimates that "all manu-
scripts sent in both stories and articles
must be original," it is to be hoped that a
complete understanding exists between them.
THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B.
GEOEGE BAEEINGTON, PICKPOCKET AND POET.
(See 2 nd S. viii. 294 ; 3 rd S. iii. 120 ; iv. 245 ; xi.
476.) To what has been said concerning the
author of the immortal lines,
True patriots we, for be it understood We left our country for our country's good,
both in ' N. & Q.' and in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' (vol. iii. pp. 288-9), may be added the fact that in ' The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1798 ' appeared a satirical series of ' Botany Bay Resolutions.' These, in denunciation of French Jacobinism and praise of British liberty, are supposed to have been passed " at a very numerous and respectable Meeting of his Majesty's faithful and loyal Subjects of Botany Bay, held at Port Jackson, the 20th October, 1792; George Barrington, Esquire, in the Chair." The chairman in his supposed speech is caused to refer to the fact that " in order to prevent the introduction of anarchy and irreligion into the best of Govern- ments, an association had been formed under the auspices of John Beeves, Esquire, a true patriot. This last phrase indicates that Barrington's famous line, written in 1796, became known in Britain in good time ; but the author of the satire was not quite precise as to dates. According to the account of John Reeves given in the l Dictionary of National Biography ' (vol. xlvii. pp. 415-6), it was not until the autumn of 1792 that he returned to England from Newfoundland, where he had held office ; and it was only then that he initiated an " Association for preserving Liberty and Property against Levellers and Republicans," of which body he became chair- man on 20 November. It could scarcely have been, therefore, on 20 October that Barring- ton at Botany Bay could reasonably even for the purposes of satire have been sup- posed to rally to Reeves's Association.
ALFEED F. ROBBINS.
GIG. The use of this word by Dickens in a story the action of which takes place about
